Jhoots Pharmacy Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department of Health and Social Care
Josh Dean
Main Page: Josh Dean (Labour - Hertford and Stortford)Department Debates - View all Josh Dean's debates with the Department of Health and Social Care
(1 day, 21 hours ago)
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Stephen Kinnock
The hon. Member is right: this is about making the regulatory framework more robust. As I have pointed out, it is robust on pharmacists, on technicians and on pharmacy premises, but it is simply not strong enough when it comes to pharmacy business owners. The unprecedented case of Jhoots is throwing that into sharp relief. That is what we are working on at pace. I will be happy to update her once we have some clear progress on the plan and strategy to beef up the regulatory framework to ensure that this kind of thing can never happen again.
Josh Dean (Hertford and Stortford) (Lab)
Last week I met staff from Jhoots Pharmacy in Thorley and was shocked when they told me that they had been unpaid for months but were still working. Some were struggling with their mortgages or unable to afford food for their children’s school lunches. Their concern was for their residents, many of whom are elderly and vulnerable, who have been left without essential medication because of stock issues and unexpected closures. They are good, decent people who want to provide a community service for our residents. Will the Minister assure my constituents directly that the Department will look at all possible options and work across Government where relevant to address the situation that allowed this to become a problem and the specific situation affecting my constituents now?
Stephen Kinnock
I pay tribute to my hon. Friend’s constituents, who are clearly going through an extremely difficult and challenging time. I strongly recommend that they contact ACAS and the PDA, or another trade union if they happen to be a member of one. His key point is about how we can ensure that this does not happen again. The GPhC is taking enforcement action against individual pharmacies and we have to wait for the outcome of those actions—some of those are going through appeal processes. As soon as one of those actions has concluded, that will greatly facilitate and catalyse the process for going after any pharmacy that is not delivering to the service standards that we would expect.